As a hierarchical network framework, clustering aims to divide nodes with similar mobility characteristics into the same cluster to form a more structured hierarchical network, which can effectively solve the problem of high dynamics of the network topology caused by the high-speed movement of nodes in aeronautical ad hoc networks. Based on this goal, we propose a multi-hop distributed clustering algorithm based on link duration. The algorithm is based on the idea of multi-hop clustering, which ensures the coverage and stability of clustering. In the clustering phase, the link duration is used to accurately measure the degree of stability between nodes. At the same time, we also use the link duration threshold to filter out relatively stable links and use the gravity factor to let nodes set conditions for actively creating links based on neighbor distribution. When selecting the cluster head, we select the most stable node as the cluster head node based on the defined node stability weight. The node stability weight comprehensively considers the connectivity degree of nodes and the link duration between nodes. In order to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, we compare them with the N-hop and K-means algorithms from four indicators: average cluster head duration, average cluster member duration, number of cluster head changes, and average number of intra-cluster link changes. Experiments show that the proposed method can effectively improve the stability of the topology.

Machine reading comprehension with multi-hop reasoning always suffers from reasoning path breaking due to the lack of world knowledge, which always results in wrong answer detection. In this paper, we analyze what knowledge the previous work lacks, e.g., dependency relations and commonsense. Based on our analysis, we propose a Multi-dimensional Knowledge enhanced Graph Network, named MKGN, which exploits specific knowledge to repair the knowledge gap in reasoning process. Specifically, our approach incorporates not only entities and dependency relations through various graph neural networks, but also commonsense knowledge by a bidirectional attention mechanism, which aims to enhance representations of both question and contexts. Besides, to make the most of multi-dimensional knowledge, we investigate two kinds of fusion architectures, i.e., in the sequential and parallel manner. Experimental results on HotpotQA dataset demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach and verify that using multi-dimensional knowledge, especially dependency relations and commonsense, can indeed improve the reasoning process and contribute to correct answer detection.

In this paper, we propose two schemes that improve the delay and the current consumption for efficient polling communications in multi-hop networks based on the receiver-initiated media access control (MAC) protocol. Polling communications can offer reliable data collection by avoiding communication collisions, but the larger delay and current consumption for the round-trip operation should be improved. The first proposal is an enhanced source routing scheme for downlink communications. In the proposed scheme, multiple candidates of relay terminals can be loaded in the routing information, so the route is not specified uniquely. The improvement of the delay and the current consumption is achieved by shortening the waiting time for communication timings based on the flexible routing. The second proposal is a round-trip delay reduction scheme which focuses on the bi-directionality of polling communications. The proposed scheme reduces the round-trip delay by offering frequent communication timings for uplink communications. Also, this paper proposes the joint application of the enhanced source routing scheme and the round-trip delay reduction scheme in polling communications. Computer simulations that suppose a multi-hop network based on the feathery receiver-initiated transmission (F-RIT) protocol in stable channel conditions are carried out. The results show the effectiveness of the proposed schemes in improving the delay and the current consumption. When the polling interval is 900s, the combination of the two proposed schemes improves the round-trip delay by up to 44.1% and the current consumption by up to 38.7% in average.

Previously, dynamic multi-hop shortcut (DMHS) communications to improve packet delivery rate and reduce end-to-end transmission delay was proposed. In this letter, we theoretically derive the end-to-end throughput of DMHS considering the retransmission at each node for a simple network model without considering collision. Moreover, we show the validity of the derived expression using computer simulations, and we clarify the effect of various parameters on the throughput using DMHS.

The packet error rate (PER) performance of multi-hop STBC based cooperative and diversity relaying systems are studied. These systems consist of a source, a destination, and two relay stations in each hop. From in-lab experiments, it is confirmed that the cooperative relaying system has better PER performance than the diversity relaying system with highly correlated channels.

In millimeter wave (mmWave) vehicular communications, multi-hop relay disconnection by line-of-sight (LOS) blockage is a critical problem, particularly in the early diffusion phase of mmWave-available vehicles, where not all vehicles have mmWave communication devices. This paper proposes a distributed position control method to establish long relay paths through road side units (RSUs). This is realized by a scheme via which autonomous vehicles change their relative positions to communicate with each other via LOS paths. Even though vehicles with the proposed method do not use all the information of the environment and do not cooperate with each other, they can decide their action (e.g., lane change and overtaking) and form long relays only using information of their surroundings (e.g., surrounding vehicle positions). The decision-making problem is formulated as a Markov decision process such that autonomous vehicles can learn a practical movement strategy for making long relays by a reinforcement learning (RL) algorithm. This paper designs a learning algorithm based on a sophisticated deep reinforcement learning algorithm, asynchronous advantage actor-critic (A3C), which enables vehicles to learn a complex movement strategy quickly through its deep-neural-network architecture and multi-agent-learning mechanism. Once the strategy is well trained, vehicles can move independently to establish long relays and connect to the RSUs via the relays. Simulation results confirm that the proposed method can increase the relay length and coverage even if the traffic conditions and penetration ratio of mmWave communication devices in the learning and operation phases are different.

With no need for Road Side Unit (RSU), multi-hop Vehicular Ad Hoc NETworks (VANETs) have drawn more and more attention recently. Considering the safety of vehicles, a Media Access Control (MAC) protocol for reliable transmission is critical for multi-hop VANETs. Most current works need RSU to handle the collisions brought by hidden-terminal problem and the mobility of vehicles. In this paper, we proposed RV-MAC, which is a reliable MAC protocol for multi-hop VANETs based on Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA). First, to address the hidden-terminal under the networks with multi-hop topology, we design a region marking scheme to divide vehicles into different regions. Then a collisions avoidance scheme is proposed to handle the collisions owing to channel competition and the mobility of vehicles. Simulation results show that compared with other protocol, RV-MAC can decrease contention collisions by 30% and encounter collisions by 50% respectively. As a result, RV-MAC achieves higher throughput and lower network delay.

Wireless Full-Duplex (FD) communication can double the point-to-point throughput. To obtain the full benefits of the FD technique in multi-hop networks, its potential throughput performance in multi-hop networks should be clarified qualitatively and quantitatively. Developing an analytical model for FD multi-hop networks is effective and useful for not only clarifying such network dynamics but also developing the optimal protocol design. However, generalized analytical expression for the end-to-end throughput of FD multi-hop networks has not been proposed. This paper proposes analytical expressions for the end-to-end throughput of string-topology wireless FD multi-hop networks. Our approach is to integrate with the analytical model of the airtime expression, which is an effective analytical approach of the throughput analysis for Half-Duplex (HD) multi-hop networks, and the Markov-chain model considering the FD MAC operation. The proposed model clarify the detailed effect of the FD MAC operation on the throughput performance in multi-hop networks. In particular, it can obtain the end-to-end throughput of FD multi-hop networks for arbitrary number of hops, arbitrary payload size and arbitrary value of the minimum contention window. The analytical expressions verified by comparisons with the simulation results. From the comparisons with the results in HD multi-hop networks, we confirm the effectiveness of the FD communication in multi-hop networks.

In this paper, we first evaluate Breadcrumbs in wireless multi-hop networks and reveal that they brings throughput improvement of not only popular content but also less popular content. Breadcrumbs can distribute popular content traffic towards edges of a wireless network, which enables low-popularity content to be downloaded from the gateway node. We also propose a new caching decision, called receiver caching. In receiver caching, only the receiver node caches the transmitted content. Our simulation results show that receiver caching prevents frequent replacement of cached content, which reduces invalid Breadcrumbs trails to be remained. And they also show that receiver caching significantly improves the total throughput performance of Breadcrumbs.

Applying Software Defined Network (SDN) technology to wireless networks are attracting much attention. Our previous study proposed a channel utilization method based on SDN/OpenFlow technology to improve the channel utilization efficiency of the multi-channel wireless backhaul network (WBN). However, since control messages are inherently transmitted with data traffic on a same channel in WBN, it inevitably degrades the network capacity. Specifically, the amount of control messages for collecting statistical information of each flow (FlowStats) linearly increases with the number of ongoing flows, thereby being the dominant overhead for backhaul networks. In this paper, we propose a new method that prevents the increase of control traffic while retaining the network performance of the previous method. Our proposed method uses statistical information of each interface (PortStats) instead of per-flow information (FlowStats), and handles multiple flows on the interface together if possible. Otherwise, to handle individual flow, we propose a way to estimate per-flow information without introducing extra control messages. Finally, we show that the proposed method offers the same performance with the previous method, while greatly reducing the amount of control traffic.

This paper aims to establish expressions for IEEE 802.11 string-topology multi-hop networks with transmission control protocol (TCP) traffic flow. The relationship between the throughput and transport-layer function in string-topology multi-hop network is investigated. From the investigations, we obtain an analysis policy that the TCP throughput under the TCP functions is obtained by deriving the throughput of the network with simplified into two asymmetric user datagram protocol flows. To express the asymmetry, analytical expressions in medium access control-, network-, and transport layers are obtained based on the airtime expression. The expressions of the network layer and those of transport layer are linked using the “delayed ACK constraint,” which is a new concept for TCP analysis. The analytical predictions agree well with the simulation results, which prove the validity of the obtained analytical expressions and the analysis policy in this paper.

Concurrent transmission (CT) is a revolutionary multi-hop protocol that significantly improves the MAC- and network-layer efficiency by allowing synchronized packet collisions. Although its superiority has been empirically verified, there is still a lack of studies on how the receiver survives such packet collisions, particularly in the presence of the carrier frequency offsets (CFO) between the transmitters. This work rectifies this omission by providing a comprehensive evaluation of the physical-layer receiver performance under CT, and a theoretical analysis on the fading duration of the beating effect resulting from the CFO. The main findings from our evaluations are the following points. (1) Beating significantly affects the receiver performance, and an error correcting mechanism is needed to combat the beating. (2) In IEEE 802.15.4 systems, the direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) plays such a role in combatting the beating. (3) However, due to the limited length of DSSS, the receiver still suffers from the beating if the fading duration is too long. (4) On the other hand, the basic M-ary FSK mode of IEEE 802.15.4g is vulnerable to CT due to the lack of error correcting mechanism. In view of the importance of the fading duration, we further theoretically derive the closed form of the average fading duration (AFD) of the beating under CT in terms of the transmitter number and the standard deviation of the CFO. Moreover, we prove that the receiver performance can be improved by having higher CFO deviations between the transmitters due to the shorter AFD. Finally, we estimate the AFD in the real system by actually measuring the CFO of a large number of sensor nodes.

The end-to-end packet error rate (PER) performance of a multi-hop cooperative relaying system is discussed in this paper. In this system, the end-to-end PER performance improves with the number of hops under certain conditions. The PER performance of multi-hop cooperative networks is analyzed with the state transition technique. The theoretical analysis reveals that the PER performance can be kept almost constant, or even improved, as the number of hops is increased. Computer simulation results agree closely with the analysis results. Moreover, to confirm this performance characteristic in an actual setup, an in-lab experiment using a fading emulator was conducted. The experimental results confirm the theoretical end-to-end PER performance of this system.

In this paper, a new method of model predictive control (MPC) for a multi-hop control network (MHCN) is proposed. An MHCN is a control system in which plants and controllers are connected through a multi-hop wireless network. In the proposed method, (i) control inputs and (ii) paths used in transmission of control inputs are computed with constant period by solving the finite-time optimal control problem. First, a mathematical model for expressing an MHCN is proposed. This model is given by a switched linear system, and is compatible with MPC. Next, the finite-time optimal control problem using this model is formulated, and is reduced to a mixed integer quadratic programming problem. Finally, a numerical example is presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed method.

This paper proposes a novel cooperative scheme combining distributed space-time block code (STBC) at physical layer, multiple access protocol at medium access control (MAC) layer and opportunistic routing without complicated routing algorithm for achieving high reliability for vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications. The proposed scheme can reduce interference and collision, and achieve reducing redundant broadcast of safety-related messages for multi-hop vehicular communications on highway. In particular, we propose a novel algorithm of relay selection based-on position, speed and direction of movement to select intermediate vehicle stations (VS) with high contribution according to the transmission direction. Furthermore, in order to reduce interference and collision, we install a new timer to select a master relay vehicle station (MVS) which manages a packet transmission of whole network to trigger and synchronize transmitting timing of relay VSs (RVSs) in each hop. From the results of simulations, we can confirm that the proposed method can achieve reducing the redundant broadcast safety-related messages with keeping the packet loss probability by limiting the retransmission at each VS.

Wireless sensor networks play an important role in several industries. Ad-hoc networks with multi-hop transmissions are considered suitable for wireless sensor networks because of their high scalability and low construction cost. However, a lack of centralized control makes it difficult to respond to congestion when system capacity is exceeded. Therefore, the analysis of system capacity is a critical issue for system design. In this paper, we propose a novel zone division model to analyze the capacity of multi-hop wireless sensor networks using carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance protocols. We divide the one-hop area to a gateway (GW) into two zones: an outer zone, where access nodes (ANs) can relay packets from multi-hop ANs, and an inner zone where ANs cannot relay packets. Using this approach, we calculate the packet loss for each zone to estimate the capacity, considering the difference in the communication range of the GW and ANs, as well as the collision with hidden nodes. Comparisons with simulation results and the conventional method show that our model achieves higher estimation accuracy.

Multi-hop networks have been proposed to increase the data transmission rate in wireless mobile networks, and consequently improve the quality of experience of cell-edge users. A successive resource allocation scheme (SAS) has been proposed for a 2-hop virtual cellular network (VCN). In a multi-cell environment, the performance of SAS degrades because of intra-cell and inter-cell interference. In order to alleviate the effect of intra-cell and inter-cell interference and consequently increase the channel capacity of the VCN, this paper proposes the sequential iterative allocation scheme (SIS). Computer simulation results show that, compared to SAS, SIS can improve the fairness, the ergodic, and the outage channel capacity per mobile terminal (MT) of the VCN in a multi-cell environment. This paper also analyzes the performance of the VCN compared to that of the single hop network (SHN) when SIS is applied in a multi-cell environment. Using SIS, VCN can provide higher ergodic channel capacity, and better degree of fairness than SHN in a multi-cell environment. The effect of the number of wireless ports (WPs) in the VCN is also investigated, and the results suggest that adding more WPs per virtual cell in the VCN can enhance the outage channel capacity per MT and the degree of fairness of the VCN.

String-topology multi-hop network is often selected as an analysis object because it is one of the fundamental network topologies. The purpose of this paper is to establish expression for end-to-end delay for IEEE 802.11 string-topology multi-hop networks. For obtaining the analytical expression, the effects of frame collisions and carrier-sensing effect from other nodes under the non-saturated condition are obtained for each node in the network. For expressing the properties in non-saturated condition, a new parameter, which is frame-existence probability, is defined. The end-to-end delay of a string-topology multi-hop network can be derived as the sum of the transmission delays in the network flow. The analytical predictions agree with simulation results well, which show validity of the obtained analytical expressions.

Multi-hop cooperative communication has been investigated in order to overcome disadvantages such as fading, obstruction and low power. In addition, with the goal of increasing access capacity, the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) modulation is being advanced as a solution. In this paper, we propose the approach of relay ordering in a Decode-and-Forward OFDM scheme. Combining techniques such as maximal ratio combining and selection combining are employed at receivers and approximate outage capacity probabilities are derived for evaluating system performance over frequency selective Rayleigh fading channels. Final, the expressions are validated by Monte-Carlo simulations, and are used to compare with the same scheme based relay selection.

In a proxy re-signatures (PRS) scheme, a semi-trusted proxy is given some information which allows it to translate a user i's signature on a message m into another user j's signature on the same message m. However, the proxy cannot, on it own, compute signatures for either i or j. This notion introduced by Blaze et a. at EUROCRYPT 1998, and then revisited by Ateniese and Hohenberger at CCS 2005. The existence of multi-use unidirectional PRS scheme is an open problem left by AH05. Whereafter, at CCS 2008, Libert and Vergnaud constructed the first multi-use unidirectional PRS scheme. However, there is a major drawback in the LV08 scheme that the size of the signatures is linear in the number of translations. Hence, Libert and Vergnaud said that a more challenging task would be to find out implementations of such primitives where the size of signatures and the verification cost do not grow linearly with the number of translations. In this work we resolve this task by constructing a such PRS scheme in the standard model by using indistinguishability obfuscation. A shortcoming of our construction is that the security is selective but not full.